


A Moment; An Instant

by afelin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Crossover, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, F/M, Female Protagonist, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Master of Death Harry Potter, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Teen Romance, harry is born in the narutoverse, harry potter is naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 01:01:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16052219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afelin/pseuds/afelin
Summary: She'd lived countless lifetimes, had walked numerous lands, but she'd never been in a world quite like this one. The Master of Death is reborn as the daughter of Minato and Kushina, and the world is forever changed. Harry takes Naruto's place. Rating subject to change.





	1. Chapter 1

She was an anomaly from the moment she was born.

When Setsuna was born, eerily silent, a kaleidoscope of butterflies flew in and decorated her crown. Kushina could only watch in stunned disbelief as her baby (whose eyes were too wise, too _knowing_ ) merely giggled and lifted an arm for the butterflies to land on. There was no time to marvel, however, as soon the world exploded.

\--

Harry (Aya. Tobias. Avon. _Setsuna._ ) stared up at the impaled bodies of his parents.

“Hello again, little Mistress.” A gravelly voice rumbled. He (she? _they?_ ) tore his eyes away from his parents who were frozen in the midst of their last words.

“Death.” He acknowledged, gaze falling on his new form. Despite the fact that he may be parentless yet again, he did not blame Death. It was his parents’ decision, after all, and what could he do as a mere babe? At least this time around he would be able to honor their last wishes. Most times they had been dead before he was even born. Despite these thoughts, bitterness curled in his gut, dark and ugly.

“You must be wondering why I have stopped time.” Death watched his little Master, as he has always done.

“Stopped time?” He bared his teeth in a mockery of a smile. “But that’s not all you’ve done, is it? You’ve brought us to a different dimension entirely. How else am I able to communicate, to comprehend beyond what my current self can?”

Death chuckled, the dying breaths of a thousand people whispering out. “Astute as ever, Master. However, now is not the time for our usual antics. You are at a… crossroad, of a sort.”

Harry tilted his head in question.

“As you know, being the Master of Death allows for certain privileges and gifts from me. The one that applies here is your ability to make deals. Trades, if you will. In this situation, you have two options. You can choose to save either your mother or your father, but not both.”

He pushed the thought aside for a moment. “Why now? Why, after all this time of living and dying?”

“Fate is a fickle thing, and either option will lead down different paths.”

Harry accepted the non-answer and pondered the proposition offered to him. He didn’t want to give up any of her parents. Lifetimes had come and gone, but he had never been allowed the opportunity to have parents, the one thing he had wished since the first time, when he had been Harry. _Just_ Harry. For being the Master of Death was both a blessing and a curse, and the birth of such a powerful entity - the birth of a _god_ \- always had consequences. 

Always.

Now that he had to choose between parents, the chance of having _both_ dangled just out of reach -- he sighed, allowing his bitterness to diffuse into the miasma of angerhatredrage _love_ around him.

“There is no way to save both?” He asked tiredly, already knowing the answer but desperately praying for another. “Why can’t I save both and sacrifice another?” Greed and despair had made him callous, uncaring of others’ plight.

Death watched him, slight sadness in his eyes. “You know why, Mistress. I apologize. Even gods have limitations. In order for balance to be kept, only a soul of equal value may be traded. As parents to the child of prophecy, they both have a large amount of potential change their survival will bring. The only one with an equal value will be the other, unless you decide to sacrifice the souls of hundreds.”

Harry closed his eyes in anguish. He was tempted, but he knew he could not, _would_ not place his happiness over that of hundreds. 

“There is no way around it?” He couldn’t hold himself back from making one last useless plea. He knew there was no way around it. He had studied these laws, after all: made them, enforced them, embodied them.

Death was silent, gaze knowing and Harry accepted.

He breathed in that miasma and let it suffuse his very being for a time, before releasing it in the form of a sigh. He felt the burdens of countless universes, countless timelines, weigh down on him in that same instance.

Such was the life of the Master of Death. Death was many things, but above all it was fair. And thus, so must he be, even if at times he felt as if he would be crushed by the weight of his burden, incinerated by the flames of a thousand dying suns.

Death was fair, and was he.

He shed his emotions, shed the humanity he clung so fiercely to, and stepped fully into his role as the Master of Death.

“What are the consequences of either?”

Death acknowledged his acceptance with a brief nod. “If you save your mother, you will be unconditionally loved. Your mother will understand your plight, as she herself was the previous Jinchuuriki. You will know a mother’s love from your birth mother, and although Dumbledore may have been misguided, he was not wrong in thinking that a mother’s love is a force all its own.”

Your father, on the other hand, is the Hokage, this village’s leader. He is a powerful man, and if he is saved, the village’s losses will not be nearly as devastating. He will influence and create many positive changes to the village. However, though he will love you, his love for you will be tainted with his anger and grief at his wife’s death. You will undoubtedly have a much lonelier childhood, worse than in your first life.”

It was a choice between the good of all and his personal happiness yet again. When could he be happy without needing to sacrifice thousands?

“I choose my father, then.” He stared longingly at his mother’s frozen form, but knew it could not be.

Death smiled sadly at him. “You can still communicate with her. She will be like every other soul.”

“I know.” But he knew it would not be the same.

\--

Time restarted, and his heart clenched as they continued to speak their last words, unknowing of that interruption which had decided their fates. (And they hadn’t been interrupted, not really. Perhaps their fates had long been decided, and this was merely another cruel trick to show him what he could never have. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.) Harry stared up at them, engraving each word and smile into his memory.

No matter how many lifetimes he had lived, he could remember each and every one of the last words he was lucky enough to hear. ( _“Grow up strong, and make me proud.” “Live well, and make sure we don’t meet again until many, many years later.” “I will always love you, my little sunshine.”_ )

Death stepped in them to explain what would occur.

“But why?! Why make an exception for me?” Minato cried out. He hadn’t thought, hadn’t dared to hope, that he would ever live past this night. And now… He wasn’t sure he wanted to. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to live in a world without Kushina.

“Not for you. For your daughter. In time, you will understand.”

Death faded away with one last secretive smile to Harry. Shinobi finally appeared, and there was pandemonium as the ninja attempted to staunch the bleeding of their beloved Hokage.

With a last, quiet sigh, Harry Potter closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Idk what this trash is I don’t even know where I’m going with it to be honest. (And I really should not be starting a new story I have so many unfinished ones… But HAHA NOPE IMMA ADD THIS AND THE OTHER ONE I HAVE FLOATING AROUND MY HEAD) I’m sorry if this isn’t to your liking, but I tried my best. It’s kinda dramatic haha… whoops lol. I have the second chapter and part of the third chapter already written (I pre-wrote the first couple chapters a while back), I just need to type em up. But then as I was typing this chapter up it somehow evolved into this weird mass of stuff.
> 
> Also, Setsuna (or at least the kanji I’m using, 刹那) means a moment; an instant. It comes from buddhism and, according to wiktionary (haha gotta cite your sources kids) it “carries favorable connotations of "precious" from the Buddhist teaching that one should live well even in the shortest moment of time.”


	2. Chapter 2

And Setsuna awoke. She stared out her window, dazed and distant.

Another dream of her past self.

One could call her crazy, she supposed, for believing that she could remember her past lives and make deals with the Shinigami. However, Setsuna knew the truth.

She had been (was,  _ is _ ) Harry Potter in one of her past lives, and she had been the Master of Death. And the older she grew, the more her past and her present merged, blurring into one.

Her past as Harry Potter had granted her many gifts and much knowledge that she should not have. That was  **unnatural** . But she was Namikaze-Uzumaki Setsuna now, not Harry Potter. (And yet they were one and the same.)

She drifted away from the bed and began to get ready for the day.

\--

Namikaze Minato knew he wasn’t a good man. No matter what the citizens of Konoha thought, he knew himself, and he knew it to be true.

Good men wouldn’t flinch at the sight of their only daughter (who looked so much like Kushina it  _ hurt _ ), would not turn a blind eye to the neglect that she suffered at the hands of the villagers (but never abuse, no, even  _ he _ would not allow that), would not blame their daughter for her mother’s death (“Not for you. For your daughter.”  _ When _ would he understand?), would not sometimes look at their daughter with fear (who, no,  **what** was she for the  _ Shinigami _ to do such a thing for her?) because of her eccentricities (connected to  **death** , the priests whispered fearfully -- is that why the Shinigami had  _ smiled _ at her?). Good men would not deny any relation to their daughter (a long lost cousin entrusted her to Kushina when they died -- and wasn’t that ironic? Kushina had entrusted her to  _ Minato _ when she died).

Good men didn’t do these things to their daughter who they  **loved** .

Because Minato loved Setsuna. How could he not? With Kushina’s hair and eye colour, god, she looked so much like Kushina it hurthurt _ hurt _ and Minato can still remember how eagerly he had looked forward to Setsuna’s birth --

And wasn’t that funny? That despite all that love, he hated her just as much?

No, Minato was not a good man. ( _ and he never would be again. _ )

\--

It was just another day at the Academy. Screaming kids, loud bangs from the teacher who struggled to control them, nagging mothers, and the continual growth of a Uchiha’s fanclub. 

Joy.

Nara Shikamaru couldn’t help but find it all tiring. He was starting his last year of class at the academy, but his mother still felt the need to nag like it was his first.

Honestly, the Academy was just too troublesome.

“Yeah yeah, I got it all.” Shikamaru dismissively replied. “I’ll be fine, Mom. Class is starting soon.”

“Then why are you still here?! Go to class! I will not have my child be late on the first day of his last year!” His mother smacked his head, and Shikamaru bit back a snarky comment. He was already resigned to her ridiculous ways. He continued grumbling to himself as he walked to class, rubbing his aching ways.

As he sat down, eyes dead and interest at an all time low, he wondered why he had to come at all. Half of this stuff would probably never be applicable in real life, not to mention most of it was stuff he’d already learned at home. Unwillingly, he tuned back into the lecture when Iruka-sensei began shouting again.

Oh, he was just reprimanding Setsuna again.

He snickered, finding the fact that Iruka-sensei reprimanded Setsuna for not paying attention even as she continued to do it hilarious. She was just nodding at random times to make it seem as if she were paying attention.

Iruka threw his hands up in defeat, huffing, and the whole class laughed at him. They had long accepted the redhead’s distracted behaviour as normal, and were merely waiting for their sensei to do the same, even if it looked like he never would.

Shikamaru turned his attention back to the redhead, observing her. The butterflies flocked to her, as usual. Along with her usual battle kimono and fan, she was quite a sight. Her long red hair, an object of much envy and thus teasing, flowed down her back, the crimson strands decorated with a crown of trailing butterflies. No one knew exactly why the butterflies were so attracted to the girl, but most speculated that it was a kekkei genkai. The girl in question never answered, only smiling mysteriously.

Shikamaru wondered why she looked so sad about the butterflies. Didn’t girls normally like those things?

“She always seems kind of sad.” Choji brought up after class, during lunch.

“Huh?” Shikamaru blinked. That was out of the blue. He could guess who he was talking about, of course, but the fact that he brought it up so randomly was a little startling.

“Setsuna-san.” Choji explained, nodding to her figure a ways away. “I saw you studying her earlier. Do you think we should be friends with her? I don’t ever see her with anyone.”

It was true, after all. She had transferred in about halfway through their Academy years, and after the initial hype about her being a ward of the Hokage died down, she had just blended in. It was kind of impressive, really, the way that no one really paid attention to her, other than some occasional teasing comments, despite how much she should’ve stuck out. She should really be garnering more attention, negative or otherwise. His eyes narrowed for a second. It  _ was _ weird that they all kind of… ignored her, even him, as if she barely existed. Iruka-sensei lectured  _ Shikamaru _ much more despite the fact that he knew Setsuna paid just as much, or even less, attention as him, and much more blatantly too. He’d usually never spare much thought about her, but today was different for some reason.

Shikamaru sighed. He honestly thought that socializing was bothersome and socializing with females even more so, but Choji wanted to. He didn’t say it, but Shikamaru knew he was the kind of guy that had too big of a heart for his own good. Plus, something about Setsuna had caught his attention, and the rarity of  _ that _ occurring made this much more fascinating.

“Let’s go say hi then.” Shikamaru sighed yet again as he got up, hiding his interest under a blanket of grumbles and complaints. At least she seemed less troublesome than most females he knew.

Choji brightened, and shyly followed after him.

“Hey.” Shikamaru grunted as he flopped gracelessly onto the ground. Choji smiled at the girl, who had turned away from her butterflies to watch them. Somehow, even though she was looking right at them, she seemed to be gazing through them and at something no one else could see.

“I hope you don’t mind us sitting here.” Choji said, trying to make up for his friend’s uncaring behaviour.

“No, not at all. Feel free to sit wherever you’d like.” The girl replied, voice soft and dreamy. Her gaze sharpened, focusing  _ on _ them and not  _ through _ them.

They felt slightly unnerved at the intense stare, not used to the girl focusing her gaze. It felt as if she could see all of their secrets, see through any facades that they used.

She watched them for a bit longer, seemingly analyzing and sizing them up. She then relaxed (when had she tensed?) and offered them a dreamy smile.

“I do hope we will become friends in the future,” She commented as if in reply to an unspoken question.

Shikamaru and Choji merely moved past some of her more startling traits, taking them in stride.

“Hm. Troublesome.” Shikamaru replied first, though Setsuna seemed to realize that it was not a rejection, but a grudging acceptance.

“Me too, Setsuna-san.” Choji agreed.

The smile she gave them was nothing like the smile from before. It was a bright grin, full of hope and sunshine. It was completely unexpected from the normally dazed girl, and it captivated the two boys.

Shikamaru was further intrigued by the promise of hidden depths.

He did love a good puzzle, and Setsuna had all the makings of an exceptional one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the crazy parenthesis action. It’s supposed to be that voice in your head that you barely acknowledge, that almost subconscious voice that speaks the truths you normally shy from and lie about, or even things that the characters don’t really notice on a super conscious level, if that makes sense. I’m just trying to play around with my writing style right now, I guess.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys like the different perspectives or do you prefer I stick with one perspective? (And whose POV do you personally like best?) I quite like writing multiple perspectives but I struggle with making each perspective sound like a different character I guess? 
> 
> Also, this is the last of my prewritten bits, so updates are going to slow dramatically, I’m sorry. (If I ever update again ahahAhHA)

She didn’t know when it happened, but happen it did, and the evidence was right in front of her.

She didn’t like it.  _ Hated _ it, in fact.

Shikamaru, Choji, and Setsuna sat together at the back of the classroom, as was the usual, according to those she had subtly interrogated. But  _ when _ did it become the norm? And why hadn’t she noticed?

Well, that part she knew. Shikamaru and Choji were boring and stagnant. So she had assumed that they would always be the same, and barely paid them any attention. They hadn’t showed signs of changing in those brief moments they made themselves noticeable, hadn’t shown signs of leaving her behind. She had complained about them every time they were together, but in a way their stagnation was comforting. It was safe.  _ They _ were safe. Or at least, the  _ idea _ of them was safe.

Ino watched them interact with jealousy burning away at her gut.

They looked like a trio. A  _ true _ trio, not like when she hung out with them and it was a duo and an intruder. It was as if  _ Setsuna _ was the one who had grown up with Shikamaru and Choji,  _ Setsuna _ who was expected to be in a team with them when they graduated.

It wasn’t even like she was that  _ close _ to them  _ (though wasn’t that the problem? Hadn’t she watched her father with his friends with a sense of envy? A sense of longing? Hadn’t she thought to herself, deep inside her heart,  _ **_I want this for myself_ ** _?) _ that she could feel possessive of them. (Somehow, that made things  _ worse _ .)

And yet, that feeling that feeling inside her, that mixed bag of angerlossenvy ** _MINE_** was still there. ( _accompanied by something that felt like inadequacy squeezing her heart and tumbling in her chest and she couldn’t breathe-_ )

Somewhere down the line she had become complacent. Complacent about their friendship. Assured of her placement in their trio. Confident from the knowledge that even if her other friendships didn’t work out ( _ Sakura- ! _ ) her spot as the motivator, the leader of their little trio, was for forever. Safe in her irreplaceability. ( _ Stupid. She’d forgotten that even forever had an end. _ )

Shikamaru laughed and watched Setsuna with a fond look in his eyes he’d never had with her. Choji laughed as well, adding something she couldn’t hear, and the trio laughed together. Setsuna smacked the both of them with a gentleness that Ino had used on the duo; her smile, so utterly content, was one that Ino had wanted to wear with them. Because of them.

Before she knew it, before she was really conscious of it, the rashness she hadn’t quite gained control over prompted her to  _ do something _ and she was walking over to them, something in her aching for a fight. 

Something about the way she strode purposefully over to their direction must have drawn attention to her, for some part of her (the part that yearned to be the “Ino” in the “Ino-Shika-Cho” team, her bitter mind provided) noticed the quieting of the room, the hushed whispers of gleeful gossips. She would have been one of them - eagerly hunting for the latest bit of news, gathering information the way she was  _ bred _ to - in another time, another place. She could feel the burning gaze of Sasuke, but for once she didn’t pay him any mind.

The quiet no doubt clued the trio in on her approach, and they looked up, curious and waiting, tensed subtly for a confrontation. Her satisfaction was spoiled by the fact that Setsuna, the one she had most wanted to intimidate, only glanced up for a brief second before looking back down at her notebook. Ino could have made the mistake of interpreting her actions as fear or nervousness had she not been trained since birth to read body language like one might read a book. ( _ Crossed legs. Relaxed shoulders. Unfurrowed brows. _ ) No, Setsuna wasn’t afraid. She was completely and utterly  _ bored. _

Ino’s nostrils flared at the blatant dismissal, and judging from the sharpening of his gaze and brief glance to his companion, Shikamaru had picked up on her tell.

“Shikamaru, Choji, you’re far too kind for your own good! But I think sometimes you guys need to learn the difference between kindness and pity,” Ino began with a saccharine smile, that same part of her mind pushing her to  _ hurt _ like she’d been hurt. “The only reason one would hang out with a  **_freak_ ** like her is because she’s just so pitiful, after all, and I wouldn’t want you to get that poor girl’s hopes up. I would hate for her to think you guys are actually  _ friends _ .”

Setsuna’s eyes had snapped up at the word ‘freak’, giving her a cold glare Ino had never seen before on the normally dreamy girl’s face. Ino tamped down the sudden spike of fear with the feeling of triumph, throwing out a confident smirk and a toss of her hair for good measure. She’d pressed a button, she noted gleefully.

“Ino.” The word was sharp and cutting, but nothing hurt more than the gentle look Shikamaru gave Setsuna, making sure she was alright. ( _ What about me? Why don’t you care about me anymore? _ )

“Oh, you’re going to choose the friendless  **freak** that no one likes over  **me** ? Your childhood friend?”

The bitterness in that statement shocked even herself. It wasn’t even like she _liked_ Shikamaru and Choji that much, really. It was the fact that they preferred a loser - who, despite being the ward of the Yondaime through some convoluted story, was seen as little more than an orphan - over her. (And didn’t that say a whole lot about Setsuna? That even the _Yondaime_ , one of the nicest people in Konoha, didn’t seem to care that much for her?) It was the fact that she _had_ _tried_ \- had _wanted_ \- once upon a time, to have the same relationship with them that Setsuna seemed to have so easily.

It was the fact that she had believed, despite their differences, they were going to be  _ team _ . Not just a duo and an intruder, an honest-to-god  _ trio _ . The realities of being a ninja were slowly but surely seeping into her thoughts, but she had pushed the thought aside because they would get through it together. And suddenly it seemed as if there was no longer any room for her, and every insecurity, every worry she’d ever shoved aside came bursting out of the woodwork.

The worst of it all? Ino knew she was being ridiculous, every bit of the  _ troublesome _ that Shikamaru liked to launch at her. Just because they gained a new friend who they liked and relaxed with (that’s what friends were  _ for _ , after all) doesn’t mean that she was suddenly launched out of their future team. Ino-Shika-Cho was a team that had been decided upon ever since she was born, probably even before that. Furthermore, her actions were completely irrational. If she had truly wanted to know her place on the team, her place in their trio, the best way to find out would be a private chat. Not in front of all of their peers, trying to intimidate a girl that she knew but didn’t want to admit wouldn’t be intimidated. Would never be intimidated by her.  _ (For those eyes were too old, too familiar with the world’s horrors to be intimidated by Ino.) _

But Ino was a preteen girl who had never learned how to share before. Had never really needed to know.  _ (Just look at what happened with Sakura.) _ And all she could feel was hurt and a vague feeling of  _ why? _

“I’m not choosing anyone over anyone. What you said was uncalled for. Setsuna-chan probably has never even spoken a word to you before.” Shikamaru’s gaze was like a banked fire. Calm, measured, but with enough heat to  _ burn _ . She hated it. Hated him.

Ino couldn’t help but glance back at Setsuna, only to find her staring back with no malice in her eyes. It caught Ino off-guard, because there was a calm  _ understanding _ in that gaze and it was such a 180 from her earlier stare that what had started as a brief glance turned into a long staring contest.

Not for the first time, Ino was struck by how  _ pretty _ Setsuna truly was. She was almost otherworldly - her normally dreamy gaze (Ino ignored the goosebumps erupting down her back from just a calm stare) and the ever present kaleidoscope of butterflies only added to her fae-like appearance. There was something coldly untouchable about her beauty despite her fiery red hair, made all the more vibrant by the multitude of colours trailing down the strands. Her eyes were a striking purple that was sometimes almost too blue to be called violet - and compared to that unique shade, how could Ino’s average blue-coloured eyes compete? Even though she was so, so proud to have inherited her father’s blond hair and blue eyes, sometimes she hated looking so similar to her clan members when people like  _ Setsuna _ existed.

“Shika, it’s fine.” That dreamy gaze was back, and Ino wondered if that stare that had cut right through her defenses was a mere figment of her imagination. “I think it was all a misunderstanding. Why don’t we talk about this some other time? I hardly think this is the right setting for a talk such as this one.” Setsuna smiled a little, and with a rush, Ino became fully aware of all the whispers around her. She fought down her embarrassment as Shikamaru tsked before laying his head back down on his folded arms.

Ino managed a sneer and strode back to her seat just as quickly as she had strode away from it. She was  _ not _ running away from that stare (that had unsettled her, raised her hackles like nothing else had). She was simply choosing her battles.

Ino was smart - even if she didn’t always appear that way - and she understood that sometimes you had to lose a battle to win the war.


End file.
